Conference Panel: “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes” at LSA 2025, Philadelphia, PA (10 January 2025)

The ANS will host a panel at the LSA 2025 conference, which will be held 9 to 12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes

an organized session at the 2025 annual meeting of the

Linguistic Society of America

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

9-12 January 2025

The American Name Society (ANS) is pleased to announce a panel that will be convened at the 2025 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), which will take place on 9-12 January 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a long-time sister society of the LSA, the ANS frequently held its annual meeting in conjunction with the annual meeting of the LSA. This panel will celebrate the relationship between the two organizations with three papers on the theme of names and world-building.

The panel is titled “Names and World-building in Fantasy & Science Fictional Universes,” and it features three papers on names and the fantasy genre of literature and Role Playing Games. The panel will be held on 10 January 2025 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm in Franklin Hall 1 of the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. The papers in this session are:

Richard Janda (IU – Bloomington), “Tolkien’s vs. Rowling’s Names: Historical vs. Modern Reality; Elvish vs. Humorous Inventions”

Brandon Simonson (Boston University), “The Linguistic Function of Religious Names in the Creative World of Dungeons & Dragons”

Jean-Louis Vaxelaire (Université de Namur) and Marine Verriest (Université de Namur), “Theirastra and Gérard: Onomastic differences between two tabletop role-playing games (RPG)”

Registration for the 2025 LSA annual meeting is now open:

https://web.cvent.com/event/40d9411e-b965-4659-b9c3-63046eeed3d4/

For more information about the Linguistic Society of America, click here:

https://www.lsadc.org/

The Call for Papers described the session as such:

This session explores names and naming conventions in popular culture, especially personal names and place names that appear in works of literature, music, film, and games. Names convey meaning, but they also serve greater purposes of world-building in popular culture and its reception. Whether the names are of competing houses in A Game of Thrones, the lawless outer rim worlds in the Star Wars universe, or the vault-dwelling protagonists in the Fallout series, each name adds substance and meaning to the world for which it was created. Papers in this session organized by the American Name Society (a long-time sister society of the LSA) address the complex intersection between names and the worlds that they inhabit.

Download a PDF copy of the Call for Papers by clicking here.

For more information about the LSA 2025 conference, visit the LSA conference page here.

Registration Opens: ANS Name of the Year Discussion and Vote (Virtual, 9 January 2025)

ANS Name of the Year Discussion and Vote

Thursday, January 9, 2025 on Zoom, 12 – 2pm PST

REGISTRATION is now open! Click here to register for the discussion and vote.

Join us for our annual Name of the Year discussion! We will be nominating, discussing, and voting on eligible names in the following categories:

Personal Names: Names of groups or individuals, including nicknames, given names, surnames, or a combination of these.
Place Names: Names or nicknames of any real geographical locations (e.g., rivers, lakes, mountains, streets, buildings, regions, countries, etc.).
Brand Names: Names of commercial products, companies, organizations, and businesses (both for-profit and non-profit). This category includes personal names used as brands for commerce.
Artistic/Literary Names: Names of fictional persons, places, or institutions, in any written, oral, or visual medium (e.g., titles of art or musical works, books, plays, tv programs, movies, games, etc.).
E-Names: Names of online platforms, websites, and movements, as well as hashtags, usernames, etc.
Miscellaneous Names: Names that do not fit in any of the above five categories.

The discussion will be conducted by Laurel Sutton, ANS President and Name of the Year Coordinator.

If you have not done so already, you can nominate names via this form

Advance nominations must be received no later than December 31st, 2024, at midnight Pacific.

Tickets to this event are free!

The URL to our Zoom room will be sent to everyone who registers for this event.

Please review previous Name of the Year reports, to better understand the type of names that will be accepted:

Name of the Year Report 2023 (PDF)

Name of the Year Report 2022 (PDF)

Name of the Year Report 2021 (PDF)

The Most Common Surnames in America

A recent study by Ancestry.com explores the most frequently occuring American surnames, compiling data gathered from phone books. ‘Smith’ emerges as the most common example by some considerable margin, topping the list in 40 states. Other popular surnames include Johnson, Miller, Jones, Williams, and Anderson.

A follow-up article by Newsweek dug deeper into the evidence and asked what this onomastic survey might tell us about America: the origins of many of these names, historic and modern patterns of immigration, and demographic variations across the country. Their article also includes a handy interactive map that lets you view the breakdown by state – explore away!

-T.K.A

Source: Pexels (Pexels Licence)

The Most Popular Baby Names

A new study by BabyCentre explores recent trends in baby naming.

US data suggests that the most popular baby names of 2024 so far are Noah and Olivia. Olivia has proved consistently popular in the US for some time, and has been among the top three female names since 2012. Interestingly, this is trend mirrored in much of the rest of the English-speaking word: Noah and Olivia are also the most popular baby names in both the UK and Canada (for the latest published data). Noah is also popular in Aotearoa, where the top female name is instead Charlotte. Australia, in contrast, is most fond of the names Oliver and Isla.

-T.K.A

Source: Pexels (shared under CC0)

American Name Society Bulletin, Summer 2024, Now available!

Click here to download the Summer 2024 ANS Bulletin.

In this issue, you will find:

American Name Society Seeking New ANS Officers for 2025
NAMES: A Journal of Onomastics Editorial Board Reviewers Needed!
NAMES New AI Policy
Book Titles and Reviewers Wanted!
Legacy Tribes to Deceased ANS Members
- John Alger (1930-2019)
- Edwin Lawson (1923-2021)
- Wolfgang Ahrens (1940-2022)
- Thomas Gasque (1937-2023)

Seeking New ANS Officers for 2025

Ever thought about getting more involved with the American Name Society? Here is your opportunity! The American Name Society is currently looking for a few good people who are interested in joining the Executive Council. Starting in 2025, new officers will be needed to fill the positions listed below.

To apply for one or more of these Executive Council positions, please fill out the application form on this page.

Vice President (2025-2027)

The person elected to this position is primarily responsible for co-organizing the ANS annual conference in close cooperation with the ANS President. As conference co-chair, the person in this position will issue an official call for papers, organize a team of reviewers, design the program of paper presentations, and coordinate with the Linguistic Society of America and the other linguistic affiliates or “Sister Societies”: the American Dialect Society (ADS), the Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (SPCL), the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the America (SSILA), The Association for Linguistic Evidence (TALE), and the North American Association for the History of Language Sciences (NAAHoLS). In addition to these duties, the VP also serves as a voting member of the Executive Council and, as such, is actively involved in the legislative process of the ANS. The person selected for this office has the option of running for the office of ANS President, at the end of his/her term. Candidates for this position are expected to have superior organizational, time-management, and communication skills.

Allied Conference Coordinator (2025-2027)

The person elected to this position is principally responsible for organizing the ANS session at the annual conference of the Modern Language Association. This activity involves issuing a call for papers, assembling a team of abstract reviewers, selecting three authors whose work will be presented at the MLA conference, and coordinating the presentation of the three winning abstracts with the MLA administration. In addition to these duties, as a voting member of the ANS Executive Council (EC), the Allied Conference Coordinator participates in the legislative decision-making of the Society. Although the term of service for this position is for two years, the holder of this office may be re-elected pending approval by the EC. Given the fact that this position requires close communication with the MLA, candidates who have a demonstrated expertise in literary onomastics will receive preference.

Member-at-Large (2025-2028)

The person elected to this position will serve as a voting member of the Executive Council (EC) and is expected to participate actively in the legislative decision-making involved in resolutions and motions placed before the EC. In addition to these duties, members-at-large serve on various auxiliary sub-committees to, for example, help with the nomination of new officers, coordination of the annual conference, and organization of allied conferences. Officers in this position can renew their term of service twice.

Join the American Name Society!

If you enjoy reading about names, we encourage you to join the American Name Society and share your name news with us! Membership is very affordable, with yearly dues of $25.

Yearly dues support the mission of the American Name Society: to promote the study of onomastics. Amongst the many ways that the ANS works to achieve this goal, one very important way is by funding our open access journal Names: A Journal of Onomastics, which has been a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field of onomastics since 1952. Check out the latest issue of the journal here: https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans.

Membership in the ANS also allows access to a community of scholars and its communications, as well as eligibility to present your research at the ANS annual conferences and the ability to submit articles to Names: A Journal of Onomastics.

Keep apprised of the latest onomastic research by joining today!

Call for Abstracts: On Names, Naming, and Diversity in Youth Literature LAST CALL (DUE 15 AUGUST 2024)

Call for Abstracts

Call for Book Chapter Proposals On Names, Naming, and Diversity

in Youth Literature

LAST CALL

Recent years have seen a significant increase in works of fiction that champion and celebrate diversity and inclusion for young readers. This literary evolutionary literature has also introduced children, to the enormous diversity of. The current call is for book chapters that examine how youth literature use names to present that child, adolescent, teen, and tween readers ethnic, cultural, linguistic, neurological, religious, diversity. Proposals centered on the use of names and naming in youth literature dealing with individuals, families, and communities from the following groupings are particularly, but by no means exclusively welcomed:

ethnoracial minorities, including those with mixed heritage
The differently abled
LGBTQ+
communities of faith
Immigrants and asylum-seekers

Although the proposals must be in English, the works selected for examination may include other languages. Proposals will be judged upon their thematic fit and potential to make a substantive contribution to the fields of onomastics and literary studies. All Interested authors are asked to submit formal proposals using the following guidelines.

Proposal Submission Process

Abstract proposals (max. 500 words, excluding the title and references) should be sent as a PDF email attachment to Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com)
For organizational purposes, the proposals must include “DIVERSITY” in the subject line of the email
All proposals must include an abstract, title, and a preliminary list of references;
The full name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliation(s) must appear in the body of the email. These details should NOT appear in the attached proposal.
In the case of multi-authored submissions, one person must be clearly designated as the primary contact
The DEADLINE for proposal submissions is August 15, 2024. All proposals will be submitted to a double-blind review process. Authors will be notified about acceptance on or by September 15, 2024
Final chapters (max 7,000 words, excluding abstracts and references) will be due February 15, 2025

For further information about this call, please feel free to contact Professor I. M. Nick (nameseditor@gmail.com). We look forward to receiving your proposals!

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Call for Papers: The 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society (DUE 26 August 2024)

The deadline for the

Call for Papers

for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the

American Name Society

ONLINE (via Zoom)

22 February 2025

HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 26 August 2024

Due to an unexpected issue with the draft submission email address, we are extending the deadline for the call for papers for the 2025 Annual Meeting.

The American Name Society is now inviting proposals for papers for its next annual conference. The one-day event will be held virtually via Zoom, allowing for the attendance of onomastics scholars from around the world. The 2025 ANS conference will not be held in conjunction with the Linguistics Society of America conference.

Abstracts in any area of onomastic research are welcome: personal names, place names, business and institutional names, names theory, names in literature, among others.

Proposals require these elements:

Title of proposed paper
250-word abstract
Shorter 100-word abstract suitable for inclusion in conference program
50-word biography suitable for inclusion in conference program

To submit a proposal, complete the 2025 Author Information Form found here:

http://www.americannamesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ANS-2025-Author-Info-Sheet.doc

Email completed forms to us at: abstracts@americannamesociety.org

For organizational purposes, place “ANS2025” in the subject of your email.

The DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts is August 26, 2024.

All proposals will be subjected to blind review. Notification of proposal acceptances will be sent by September 30, 2024. Authors whose papers have been accepted must be current members of ANS and must register for the annual meeting. Please contact us at the above email address if you have any questions or concerns.

We look forward to receiving your submission!

Rare White Buffalo Named in Yellowstone

According to a recent NPR article, a white buffalo has been named as part of a ceremony celebrating its birth near Yellowstone National Park. The name Wakan Gli was chosen, which means ‘Returned Sacred’ in Lakota. White buffalo are remarkably rare and carry spiritual significance to a number of Native American tribes; Wakan Gli is the first white buffalo ever recorded in Yellowstone Park.